Arkham War
by Thor27
Summary: A year after the Joker's death, the inmates are tired of Arkham City. They want out.
1. Prologue

_**ARKHAM WAR**_

_**PROLOGUE**_

**0248 HOURS, ARKHAM CITY SEWERS**

Deep beneath the torn streets of Arkham City, a beast had been trapped beneath the surface. Struggling to find food, Waylon Jones had begun yet another attempt to find a way out. He followed the stench of man, and found it leading him to somewhere unexpected. As he approached his makeshift home, he saw a tall, thin man sitting atop his bed. Croc crouched, and snuck towards the man as stealthily as possible. He leapt down into his lair with a roar, and was instantly struck with an extreme confusion, dizziness and general horrible feeling. He fell to the floor, and the strange man approached.

"Hello, Waylon." the man said, in a croaky, unsettling voice. "Remember me?"

As the man knelt down, Croc got a better look at him. He wore ragged brown pants, and had a mechanical glove with syringes on the fingertips. A torn bag with gas filters in the cheeks concealed his face, and a hood covered that. He wore a hangman's noose like a neck-tie, and several large bandages covering his middle section. Scarecrow noticed Croc staring at his wound.

"Ah, yes." he continued, "You really took a bite out of me. But once I washed ashore, a friend patched me up. He shares some of my interests. And I'm sure when he's done with some aspects of his interest, he'd be happy to give some of them to you."

"What do you want, freak?" Croc spat, barely conscious.

"My offer is simple. Assist me, and you can eat all of the meat-sacks you want. Think it over. And when you make the right choice, follow the trail of rats, and we'll establish a slightly more detailed deal. Have fun in dreamland."

"Fuck you."

Scarecrow jumped from the hole, and stopped to say "It could be worse. You be in one of Tetch's hallucinations. Trust me, mine are more fun." And with that, he left Croc to his nightmare.

* * *

**0402 HOURS, KRANK TOYS CO.**

Villain alliances never usually worked. So when Bane had seen the three villains assemble and plot right in front of him, he didn't bother asking to be freed. He just sat and listened to their plans. The trio stood in the shadows, but he had identified Two-face as soon as a decision had come up. Garfield Lynns took a little longer to pick, but Bane had taken the hint as soon as Harvey had called him "Firefly". The third said a lot of science words during the meeting, miss-heard a lot of what the others had to say, and generally acted like he didn't want to be there. After a while, Firefly left, and Two-face gave the third man a syringe. He then abandoned the third man, who reluctantly stabbed himself with the chemical. It was at that point Bane discovered who the man was. A man who would be bat. A man who burst through the roof and let in the cold. Bane took an instant disliking to him.


	2. Killer Moth

_**ARKHAM WAR**_

_**CHAPTER 2**_

_**KILLER MOTH**_

**2307 HOURS, THE STACKED DECK**

Since the construction of Arkham City, the Stacked Deck's business had dropped drastically. Most of the usual customers were incarcerated, and the club's other location was deep inside the mega-prison. Costumed criminals were becoming a rare sight in the club, so when Drury Walker, Killer Moth, entered on a drizzly Tuesday, nobody laughed or teased him like they usually would. They treated him like they'd treat any other criminal, because he was the best they would get. People became a little more excitable when Batman burst through the roof and began to battle the villain. They fought for a few minutes, but Killer Moth blew up a wall and escaped in the confusion.

**2319 HOURS, FACTORY DISTRICT**

Several workers worked calmly at their machines, building a variety of toasters and such, when Killer Moth flew in through a window and turned to blast at the quickly pursuing Batman, who glided down onto a conveyer belt and flung a partially made microwave at the crook, who tapped a button on his belt and simply let the device collide with the now-active energy field.

"What do you think of my upgrades, bats?" the villain mocked.

Batman ducked behind several crates to dodge Walkers blasts, and pulled out his cryptographic sequencer. He hacked Killer Moth's tech and shut it down, before grappling Moth and kicking him in the chest and back into the wall.

**2327 HOURS, GOTHAM WATERFRONT**

Killer Moth fell back reeling towards the docks, and began attempting to blast Batman to pieces, but his tech was too heavily damaged to function. He began to fiddle with his flight pack before Batman leapt at him, and fell into the water as Killer Moth floated up above the dock. The Batman climbed back up onto the land and threw a freeze-grenade at him, sending the villain on an erratic flight path that led him to…

**ARKHAM ISLAND, 2330 HOURS**

Batman rode to Arkham Island in the Batboat, hoping that Killer Moth hadn't already escaped. Once he reached the island, it was time for some detective work. He activated his detective vision and began to follow a tracking beacon emanating from the grenade. He followed the signal to the botanic gardens, where he trekked through the wild growth. The untamed forest and wreckage left behind by Poison Ivy's Titan fuelled rampage. Batman traced the signal to a cocoon. He pulled a batarang from his belt and began to cut it open and found the body of an Arkham Guard, with the grenade stuffed in his empty eye-socket. Before the Batman could react, Killer Moth jumped down from the roof and threw a grenade of his own into Batman's back. Said grenade encased Batman in a cocoon, and began to eject all the air trapped inside with him. Killer Moth began to fly away, but was hit with a Wing-Ding and fell to the floor. Nightwing flew in from a window and landed on the crook, knocking him out, then ran over to the cocoon and broke Batman out. The police had Killer Moth within minutes.

**0953 HOURS, ARKHAM CITY PROCESSING CENTRE**

Drury Walker, now bereft of his suit, was dropped into the sprawling mega-prison only hours after his arrest, and was greeted by inmates with black skulls etched on their chests. They each ran forward and each was kicked back and knocked out. Walker ran to the Monarch Theatre, broke the door down, and then fell through the building-wide hole in the floor. He landed in the abandoned Chamber of the Demon, surrounded by wreckage and ruins. He began to rummage through the broken machines, trying to find something that could help him out of his handcuffs, but he found something much better. He found a decomposing body with green hair and a torn purple suit…

* * *

**0952 HOURS, GOTHAM MORGUE**

Nobody had moved the Joker's corpse. It was kept under 24 hour surveillance and an expert checked to ensure that it was the real body once a week. Unfortunately, those experts weren't as good as they thought. Early one Sunday morning, a familiar face entered the room, and pulled the Joker's body from its chamber. A scarred Bruce Wayne pulled a small taser from his jacket and shocked the body into consciousness, as it browned and grew to its' true face.

"Hello, Karlo." Bruce greeted, "Wanna have a little fun?"


End file.
